Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed that he was “not allowed” to interact with students of a private university in Meghalaya as part of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra on the “instructions” of the Union Home Minister.
He claimed that the Union Minister had given instructions to the university authorities through the Assam Chief Minister’s Office.
“I wanted to come to your university and address you, listen to you, understand what you are facing. But what happened was that the Home Minister of India called the Chief Minister of Assam and the CMO called the university leadership and they said that Rahul Gandhi should not be allowed to talk to the students,” Gandhi said at the Assam-Meghalaya border. said while addressing the students and others from the top of his travel bus.
Gandhi was scheduled to hold separate talks with students, civil society members and party leaders at the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM) in Meghalaya’s Ri Bhoi district, bordering Assam, on Tuesday morning.
The events at the private university were announced by the Congress on Monday afternoon, but were later rescheduled to a hotel in Ri Bhoi district after the university withdrew permission.
Gandhi is leading the party’s Manipur to Mumbai Nyay Yatra, which entered Assam from Meghalaya on Tuesday for the second and final leg of its journey in the state. It will pass through Assam till January 25.
He said, “It is not important whether Rahul Gandhi comes or not. The important thing is that you are allowed to listen to whoever you want to listen to.”
Praising the students and youth standing on the road to listen to him, he said, “Rahul Gandhi coming here is the least important thing to happen here. It’s an imagination you have, you’re being allowed to do what you want.”
He said, “You have come here because you do not agree with what the Chief Minister is trying to do. You are not ready to accept slave Assam and I am extremely proud of it.”
Attacking the BJP, Gandhi said, “They want to enslave you but I know that no power in the universe can do that.”
He also said that “this is happening not only in Assam but in every school, college, university in India”, where students “are not being allowed to imagine themselves”.
“You are the future of the country and the most important thing for the country is that you all are allowed to think freely, believe freely, imagine freely, live the life you want,” the MP said. , not that anyone else wants.” Added.
He said efforts were being made to make the youth “blindly obedient”.
Gandhi stressed that youth should be able to follow their imagination and “no one should be allowed to stop you from imagining and thinking about the India you want”.
“No one can stop you from reading and writing any language you want, no one can stop you from listening, reading your tradition, culture or history,” the Congress leader said.
